Midnight blue is a dark shade of blue named for its resemblance to the apparently blue color of a moonlit night sky around a full moon. Midnight blue is identifiably blue to the eye in sunlight or full-spectrum light, but can appear black under certain more limited spectra sometimes found in artificial lighting (especially early 20th-century incandescent). It is similar to navy, which is also a dark blue.

Variations

X11

There are two major shades of midnight blue—the X11 color and the Crayola color. This color was originally called midnight. The first recorded use of midnight as a color name in English was in 1915. At right is displayed the color midnight blue. This is the X11 web color midnight blue.

Dark midnight blue (Crayola)

At right is displayed the dark shade of midnight blue that is called midnight blue in Crayola crayons. Midnight blue became an official crayola color in 1958; before that, since having been formulated by Crayola in 1903, it was called Prussian blue.

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